Review
UH-60A Black Hawk Defence Intelligence of Ukraine
This offering from ICM of the UH-60A Black Hawk in service with the defence intelligence of Ukraine is the first of 2 new Black Hawks that have been released this month. It is packaged in the usual ICM manner, with a single plastic bag containing all the sprues in a flip top cardboard tray with additional card lid. An examination of the contents reveals no obvious issues with the mouldings, access for removal of parts is good. Some of the gates are on the large side, and so clean up will be an important aspect of this model. I believe that the additional sprue in this release is a new right hand fuselage half, otherwise it is a case of what is and is not used in this release. The cockpit of the offering is fairly well detailed, with decals supplied for instrumentation. Surprise the harnesses for all of the seating has been omitted. Something that will please the modeller is the moulded internal detail, particularly on the floor panel. The seating in the rear of the offering is the same as in the previous release, and as stated no harness detail is present. The gearbox is partially moulded, but with the limited views available the gearbox head provided in acceptable as is. The interior aspect of the model, other than the rear of the crew compartment is added as a complete module, and that will help make the joining of the 2 fuselage halves easier due to the underside of the fuselage being a separate moulding.
Exterior detail from panel lines and so forth are of a very good standard, and as lone as everything has been cleaned up well during removal you should achieve a good fit. The clear aspects of the model are pleasing and should not present any issues. The twin engine exhaust details are well replicated in this release. The main wheel struts of the model will I feel, need to be allowed to set up well due to the angle of the main strut and its support. The one thing that I would have expected to have been included is some form of defensive/offensive weaponry such as mini guns or machine guns in the doorway. The rotor head of the offering, I feel is very pleasing. The detail is well replicated and while set in its configuration, I have no complaints. The rotor blades concern me slightly, as they are provided individually and therefore at risk of distortion, due to all being packaged together. There are a number of holes that need to be drilled, in the main fuselage assembly, and while I am very pleased to see specific drill sizes included - the method for locating where to drill concerns me due to using measurements in millimetres, which will be very difficult to measure being down to .0 of a mm and I just foresee lots of people becoming disappointed with this. It is my opinion that ICM should have included blanked off holes in the various places that need to be drilled across the range of models that they intended to release in the Black Hawk series, as this would have enabled accurate drilling of holes by modellers of all abilities. I do appreciate that ICM has provided a mask template for masking the clear apertures, and the 2 distinctly different finishing options of the release.
UH-60A Black Hawk US Military Transport Helicopter.
The second release is the US military transport variant, with the differences being the use of parts on the sprues. All of the high and low points are applicable to this offering as well, with the issues of drilling holes being more complicated, due to different holes needing to be drilled depending on the variant you wish to make. These holes are for mounting various antenna onto the rear roof of the fuselage. I am wondering if it would not be better to remove the locators from the antenna and have more adaptability of the placement of them, rather than relying on drilling small holes using measurements given in 10th s of a millimetre. This offering provides 3 finishing options, with 1 based in Afghanistan, and 2 in the US based National Guard. I again believe that defensive/offensive weaponry should have been included specifically for the aircraft based in Afghanistan.